The Pigman

by Paul Zindel

Overview

Our life would be what we made of it. . . .

It's an uneventful September afternoon when sophomores John and Lorraine make a prank call to a stranger named Angelo Pignati. But the two of them aren't prepared to be so touched by the old man whose loneliness reaches out to them through the phone line. And what starts as a practical joke quickly turns into a friendship that changes all of their lives forever.

Then John and Lorraine make a terrible mistake that betrays their new friend's trust—and just like that, Mr. Pignati is gone. Now, the only way for them to find peace is to write down their friend's story—the story of the Pigman.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062272447
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/06/2018
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	94,391
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	880L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Paul Zindel (1936-2003) was born and raised on Staten Island in New York. After teaching high school science for several years, he decided to pursue a career as a playwright. His first play, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Shortly thereafter, he wrote his first novel for young adults, The Pigman, which has gone on to sell millions of copies. Mr. Zindel wrote more than fifty books over the course of his life, including the popular My Darling, My Hamburger; The Pigman’s Legacy, a sequel to The Pigman; and the autobiographical The Pigman and Me.

Read an Excerpt

An Excerpt from The Pigman

The Oath

Being of sound mind and body on this 15th day of April in our sophomore
year at Franklin High School, let it be known that Lorraine Jensen and
John Conlan have decided to record the facts, and only the facts about
our experiences with Mr. Angelo Pignati.

Miss Reillen, the Cricket, is watching us at every moment because she
is the librarian at Franklin High and thinks we're using her typewriter
to copy a book report for our retarded English teacher.

The truth and nothing but the truth, until this memorial epic is finished,
So Help Us God!

John Conlan

Lorraine Jensen

Editorial Reviews

As serious as it is funny, as moral as it is tough, as truthful as it is exciting.

Elizabeth Janeway

Gr 8 Up—In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the publication of Paul Zindel's award-winning novel, The Pigman (HarperCollins, 1968), Zindel's son David has produced audiobook versions of The Pigman and The Pigman's Legacy (Harper, 1980). In the first title, as a result of a phone prank, high school sophomores John and Lorraine become friends with Mr. Pignati (the Pigman), an elderly widower. The conflicted teens feel alienated from everything, but the Pigman's enthusiasm for life soon spills over onto them. John and Lorraine go roller skating with their new friend, and he suffers a heart attack and is hospitalized. The teens have a party at the Pigman's house, and his pig collection and some of his late wife's clothes are destroyed. When Mr. Pignati comes home unexpectedly, he's distraught and feels betrayed by the teens. They try to make it up to him by taking him to the zoo, where he learns that his beloved gorilla, Bobo, has died. This trauma causes the Pigman to have a fatal heart attack. In The Pigman's Legacy, John and Lorraine discover that a homeless man is living in Mr. Pignati's abandoned house. Thinking that this is a chance for them to make up for what happened to the Pigman, they try to befriend the surly old man. After to Atlantic City to cheer up the man, they discover that the true legacy of the Pigman is love. Both stories are told in chapters that alternate between John and Lorraine's point of view, narrated by Charlie McWade and Eden Riegel who do an outstanding job of bringing the characters to life. An added bonus is a fascinating interview with Paul Zindel discussing his craft. These remarkable audiobooks, which still offer important messages to today'steens, are a must-have for high school and public libraries.—Kathy Miller, Baldwin High School Baldwin City, KS

School Library Journal

Headline news…remarkable…Zindel has written a story that will not be denied.” — Publishers Weekly

“An intensely moving story of believably alienated young people.” — School Library Journal

“This is a shocker of a book. Startling and truthful and vivid.” — Young Readers’ Review

From the Publisher

This is a shocker of a book. Startling and truthful and vivid.

Young Readers’ Review

This is a shocker of a book. Startling and truthful and vivid.

Young Readers’ Review

This is a shocker of a book. Startling and truthful and vivid.

Young Readers' Review

THE PIGMAN is the story of two high school sophomores who are writing a memorial epic about their short but life-changing friendship with a lonely old man. Angelo Pignati, aka the “Pigman,” provides an inviting place for these two alienated teens. Eden Riegel and Charlie McWade are the voices of Lorraine and John in this fortieth anniversary edition of the YA classic. Alternating chapters tell their versions of the events that took them from teasing the lonely man to adopting him as an honorary uncle. Their smart-alecky delivery makes the story as fresh and real today as it was when first published in 1968. Unfortunately, the author interview from 1999 focuses on the author’s "survival-horror" tales and has nothing about the inspiration for THE PIGMAN. N.E.M. 2010 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

JULY 2009 - AudioFile